Saturday, May 4, 2019

The nungu (fruit) sellers

Two to three years back, my dad befriended a vegetable vendor on his morning walks. This guy along with his elder brother and parents sold vegetables and greens/herbs near our place.

Their day starts in the early morning when all of them get up, get the fresh vegetables and greens that they had collected from the neighborhood farms the previous day, catch a local train and then set up their wares near the pavement on the main road. After they are done selling all of them, they wind up for the day by late morning, go back home and then start preparing for the next day.

They are a very honest and hardworking family. My dad buys the greens/herbs from them every week and the nungu (palmyra fruit in english) during the summer season. They exchanged their phone numbers with my dad.

We usually call them if my mom wants any thing specific the next day. They dutifully call us back when they get that particular greens/herbs that day. When the younger brother had cut his finger one day while cutting off the nungu, my dad came home immediately, got the ointment, ice cubes from the fridge and drove back to give them to him.

Today, my dad had gone to get the nungu (yes the season has started!!) from the brothers and that is when he heard that their father was admitted to the hospital for an operation. He enquired about their father and after paying for the nungu, he gave some money to the younger brother telling him to use it for getting some fruits for his father. The younger brother refused and said he does not need anything else. My dad had then tried giving money to the elder brother. He refused as well saying that the empathy that you show to us is enough. You are always nice to us. Please don't give us money. My dad was surprised and came back home.

Those two brothers don't have much money. What they earn everyday is very little compared to what most of us earn. They don't have much in terms of savings. But still, they had self respect to say no to the money that was given for free. I was really happy and proud of them.

Well, inspite of were the world is heading to, there are some good people around.

Pictures of nungu -




 

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